Explosions in Gori shake fragile Russia-Georgia truce

The pullout news came as the United States threw its full support behind the Georgian government saying that U.S. military aircraft would take humanitarian aid and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit Tbilisi this week. Â

"The Russians have started to withdraw, the Georgian police and special forces are taking control," Georgian Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili earlier told AFP. Georgia also said Russian troops have left Poti, a Black Sea port city with key oil terminal.

 

A top Russian general said overnight, Gori and the surrounding area will soon be handed over to Georgian forces.

 

"For another two days Russian troops will stay in the region to carry out procedures of handing over control functions to Georgian law-enforcement bodies after which they will leave," Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov told Russian news agencies.

 

"All buildings are in normal shape, the town is supplied with water and electricity," he added inviting Georgians who fled Gori to return to their homes.

 

 

CEASEFIRE

 

The Russian and Georgian leaders agreed a ceasefire late Tuesday under which there was to be a withdrawal of their forces to positions before Georgia launched its offensive on the breakaway province of South Ossetia a week ago.

 

But on Wednesday Russian armored vehicles patrolled Gori, a key town linking the east and the west of the country. A convoy of tanks and trucks was also seen on the main road from Gori to Tbilisi.

 

Fighting erupted on Aug. 8 in the volatile South Caucasus region when Georgian forces launched an attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia.

 

During the subsequent counter operation to expel Georgian troops from the de facto independent republic and to reinforce Russian peacekeepers, Moscow sent some 10,000 troops and several hundred armored vehicles into the area.

 

TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH

Tensions remained high between Russia and the West, with Moscow warning Washington it would have to choose between its partnership with Russia or supporting Georgia.

 

The United States is the major western ally of Georgia which wants to join NATO.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the United States it has to choose between a "relatively virtual" relationship with Georgia and a "partnership (with Russia) on questions that require collective action".

 

But U.S. President George W. Bush dispatched Rice to Tbilisi and not Moscow. "The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia, insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," Bush said.

 

He ordered U.S. aircraft and naval forces to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies to Georgia.

 

The U.S. Defense Department, however, denied comments by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that the United States would take over control of Georgia's seaports and airports as part of the humanitarian efforts.

 

"We do not need nor do we intend to take over any air or seaports in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to those caught in this conflict," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

 

Rice was to hold talks in France with President Nicolas Sarkozy on the peace deal he brokered, before traveling to Tbilisi for talks with Saakashvili.

 

Her trip comes six days into a conflict that has shifted from artillery, tank and gun battles at the weekend to increasingly sharp diplomatic and political exchanges out of Washington, Moscow and Tbilisi.

 

Russian troops and armor rolled into South Ossetia on Friday in response to a Georgian bid to regain control of the renegade province which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s. Russian troops then pushed on into other parts of Georgia while aircraft bombed targets.

 

Medvedev halted the offensive on Tuesday saying that Georgia had been "punished" and Sarkozy later negotiated a ceasefire with Medvedev and Saakashvili.

 

TRUCE AGREEMENT

Despite the deal, bitterness remains. Russia said that while it would talk with the European Union about the truce agreement, it refuses to deal directly with the Georgian president.

 

"We still have diplomatic relations with Georgia, we have millions of Georgian nationals who are Russian citizens and living happily in Russia," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told BBC television.

 

"But we won't directly talk to Saakashvili, we won't do that. We offered him peace but not friendship."

 

Russia has accused Georgia of violating the truce by failing to pursue an "active withdrawal" from South Ossetia, where Moscow says 2,000 civilians were killed in the fighting.

 

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.

 

The Georgian health minister put the death toll in Georgia at 175 people, mainly civilians. Russia said 74 of its troops had been killed.

 

Russian investigators said they had opened a probe into whether Georgian forces committed genocide in their attack last week on South Ossetia, RIA Novosti news